Impey Achieves Fifth National Title

UCI WorldTour rider and defending South African Time Trial Champion, Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE) clocked the fastest time to claim his fifth National Title on day two of the 2016 SA National Road, Time Trial and Para-cycling Championships in Wartburg, KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday. Recording the second-fastest time of the day was Under-23 competitor Stefan De Bod (Dimension Data for Qhubeka Continental Team), who finished an incredible 12-seconds off Impey’s pace in the 48km race. Impey came into the race with high expectations and was elated with his home-soil victory.

He stopped the clock at 01:01:22,37. Impey says: ‘It’s nice to be back here and there’s always pressure to come back and defend the TT, but it was a lot harder this year – the guys have improved quite a bit. I was pretty confident that I could come in and do a good ride and I’m happy to walk away with it.’ Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka rounded out the Elite podium with Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg in seconnd place (01:02:06,31) and Johann Van Zyl (01:04:11,72) in third.

De Bod was the second fastest rider overall clocking an impressive time of 01:01:35,08. His Dimension Data for Qhubeka Continental Team teammates Ryan Gibbons (01:02:35,32) and Keagan Girdlestone (01:03:36,54) rounded out the U-23 podium making it a clean sweep for the team. He says: ‘It’s been a good race, the route suited me perfectly. I won a Road Race title when I was a junior so it’s nice to finally win the Time Trial title as well. We had a look at the route a few days ago and I planned where I wanted to go harder and how I was going to pace myself and everything went well. I had a good team behind me with great support.’ Speaking about the upcoming Road Race, De Bod feels confident, saying: ‘Obviously there’s a few different tactics that play out in the road race and hopefully one of our team will walk away with the title. I’m looking forward to that as well.’

Junior rider Gregory De Vink of the LEADout SA team nailed the 24km route to secure his National Time Trial Title in 00:34:27,65. He says: ‘Everything went according to plan. I came into the event quite well prepared and I had ridden on the course last year so I might have had a bit of an upper hand there. I didn’t start too hard, and everything ran smoothly so I’m just super happy to come out best.’ De Vink was not so optimistic about the upcoming Road Race, saying: ‘That will be a different story – I’ll have to see what’s going on and make the best of the situation. I’ll be well marked and they’re not going to let me go easy, so we’ll see.’

Jason Oosthuizen was the second Junior home in 00:35:13,99 with Enno Swanepoel rounding out the podium in 00:35:30,91. The Masters’ Men categories also competed today and Luke Pheiffer, who has placed his full focus full focus on racing against the clock, claimed his seventh Time Trial National Title when he won the 24km 40-44 race today. He says: ‘I won my first TT in 2007 and just kept coming back. In 2008 I thought I was smart and didn’t train that hard and finished third and thought, never again. Then from 2009, I won five titles in a row. And today’s victory is my seventh.’

Cycling South Africa’s General Manager, Mike Bradley, says: ‘The level of racing has shown a very high standard. It is really interesting to see the Under-23’s finish in the top five today and yesterday’s women were also strong. It’s also good to see some triathletes coming to participate in the Time Trial. It’s been a great event that has been well supported. The organisation has been very good and the residents and farmers of the Wartburg area have been very accommodating and supportive. It has been a trouble free race.’ The Road Race continues in Westville on Saturday and Sunday, starting at 07:00. There is no entry fee to watch this fantastic display of road cycling, but please take note of the road closures and alternative routes in order to get to the race venue timeously.